Thursday, October 13, 2016

Not long ago, I got lost searching for a place I wanted to
get to. I had GPS instructions, but they
were not exactly correct. In fact,
although they were followed explicitly, the car ended up on a long hillside in
a rural-meets-outer-suburbia location that was all wrong. And being in the car, I was just as lost as
the car was! I imagine many of you have
at one time or another found yourself in a similar situation – maybe it was
when you were a kid and got lost at the mall.
Maybe it was sometime in the past several weeks. The
worst part about being lost isn’t that you cannot find your way back (there are
lots of ways to do that), but it is the feeling that you have been cut off, alone,
and unable to reconnect with your friends or your family.

Scripture reminds us that we are never as lost as we think
we are. Even though there are many
situations that make us seem like we are spiritually out in the boondocks
– facing some kind of trouble, seeking a
job, dealing with illness, wrestling with injustice, or missing someone we love
– to name but a few. We know how it
feels – heartache, loneliness, grief, fear.
So how good it is to hear someone say something like this:

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall
trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? .
. . No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved
us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,
neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of
God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35, 37-39).

The Apostle Paul wrote those words to
Christians in Rome who were up against tremendous challenges. He wrote them because they were true, and
because they would build people up, and because they would help people reboot
their lives in a Christ-like direction.

Have you wound up in a place that you do not recognize? A remote location where everything seems
unfamiliar? A place where the road seems
to narrow down from a broadly paved superhighway to a gravel wagon track? When you reach such a place, allow the words
from Romans to center you.

If events have made you feel far from God, if you are lost
or hurting, physically, emotionally, spiritually, let God do for you what you
cannot do. God will always be
there. In Jesus Christ we know this is
true. Have every ounce of faith in the Lord
and Savior. Christ is there for
you. Christ can make you more than
conquerors. Let Him.

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Holyrood Abbey - Edinburgh, Scotland

Welcome, Friends!

Welcome to this series of thoughts and reflections on the Christian journey and life in general.

My hope is that you will find ideas here that will be helpful to you, or that will be an encouragement for you to read and worship and seek as God prompts you.

If you have a church home, I hope you are a faithful member there--worshiping and sharing in education, mission and fellowship.

If you do not have a church home, I hope that God will speak to your heart to point you toward a worshiping fellowship where your faith can be lived out in tangible and meaningful ways.

If you live in Central Florida, I encourage you to visit the church I serve, Wekiva Presbyterian Church in Longwood.

If you live far away from Central Florida, you can worship with us live on Sunday mornings at 11 AM Eastern Time, by going to our church website and linking to our live webcast. Or by watching the Sunday worship in the week following. All of the services are also archived there.

I hope you will let me know what you think of what you find in these postings by posting a comment. Or by using the feature at the end of the post for fast "reactions" feedback. Just click the box that is closest to how the post strikes you.

Blessings,

- John

About Me

John A. Dalles is a Presbyterian clergyman, hymn-writer and Pittsburgh native. A graduate of Penn State, Lancaster Seminary (M. Div.) and Pittsburgh Seminary (Doctor of Ministry), he has served the First Presbyterian Church of South Bend, and Fox Chapel Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh. Since 1997 he has served as Senior Pastor of Wekiva Presbyterian Church in Longwood, Florida (near Orlando). As a part of his ministry, Wekiva became the first church in the USA to present live webcasts of worship, a ministry inaugurated Sun., Jan. 2, 2005. Dalles is a writer of texts for hymns. His hymns have been published in hymnbooks in the USA, Canada and Australia. He has published three books of hymns, COME, O SPIRIT, SWIFT CURRENTS AND STILL WATERS, and WE TURN TO GOD. His hymn texts have also been set as choral anthems by noted sacred composers. His 2009 hymn, "God Bless the Work Your People Do" was the winning hymn in the 14th annual, highly-regarded Macalester Plymouth United Church Hymn Contest. He is married to the former Judith Taylor; they have a son, John Taylor Dalles and a daughter, Anne Elizabeth Dalles Sandoval.